shelter accomplished

This is my response to the notion of shelter.  I'm not sure what comes next, but I like this direction and am interested in this junction between sculpture and design.

this only happens to me: cat depot

My almost daily trips to good ole Home Depot are often filled with fun tales of men hootin' and hollerin' while I struggle to load 4' x 4' sheets of plywood into my vehicle and chauvinistic attempts to help me find tell me what I am looking for.  But today's trip was a little different.  Not because the employee who cut the carpet padding for me couldn't multiply 6 x 6, or that he wrote the amount down incorrectly so that it rang up at $158 instead of $17 but because while I was wandering the isles to find an employee to help... A CAT WALKED BY!!!  Dumbfounded, I looked to the nearest employee and started to move my lips and formed the words "uhhh, caaaatttt..." or something of that nature and he calmly replied "oh, that's our cat, he lives here."

 WHAT THE WHAT! 

 I frequent this Home Depot so often that it seems nearly impossible that I somehow just missed the pet cat.  So I creepily followed the little orange guy into the flooring section and waited for him to stop so I could jump in and make my move.  As it turns out J.C. was born and raised in Home Depot with his mother living nearby in the garden section.  I wonder if they are hiring for a cat-care position...  

proposal

Last night Dustyn and I proposed an interactive installation for the San Diego Museum of Art, Summer Salon Series.  They asked that the proposals be in response to the question "What does a city need?" which is in relation to their upcoming exhibition, Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement.  So here it is, our proposal which was frantically sent out at the final minute (or a tiny bit after) last night.  Hope they consider it!

Project Description:

            In observance of the question, “What does a city need?” we immediately consider the presence of the family and communal structure.  Communities are dependent on the interaction of its inhabitants and the familial structures that are established within the group, which we feel is quickly dissolving in our current culture.  Traces of these relationships are most evident in the domestic setting, particularly around the dinner table where standards have changed; the home cooked meal has quite frequently turned to take out or quick-fix meals.  As two people living in San Diego, separate from our families in the mid-west, we are sensitive to the lack of traffic that occurs within the household, and the movement and interplay amongst the dinner table.  We are interested in creating an interactive installation that documents the traffic generated around a table when a meal is served to a group, and whether those tracks are altered in accordance with its subjects.

            We intend to construct a table and chairs from plaster with a hidden internal steel frame that reside on a coarse, black substrate in order to document movement and traffic.   As an interactive piece, the traffic pattern will continually change as people penetrate the table setting.  The effect will be comparable to the austere appearance of markings on a chalkboard, which never seem to fully disappear.  We anticipate that people will interact with the setting as they would in their home, whether an individual is persistently serving others at the table, or if someone scoots their chair closer to another, and so forth.

(shelter) progress

I hope to have the shingle sofa completed in the next few days but here is what I have done thus far.

I also had plans for another alley find, an armchair (pictured below), but some kind neighbor thought I was trying to get rid of it and placed it in front of the dump, which was picked up today.  :(  I know I should have kept it in my garage until I got around to it but it smelled so bad!

feline furnishings

I can always count on another crazy cat person to send along wonderful links.  This is now added to my "to buy" list as soon as I get my tax return.  1. helmet  2. sunglasses  3. cat teepee

Thanks Cory for sending this great cardboard cat Teepee and Canadian Cabin from Loyal Luxe.

feral furniture

Part I of shelter project:  find furniture in San Diego's finest alleys, dismantle and rebuild.

Though this was not fun and actually quite repulsive, I have taken this sofa down to the poorly built frame that held it together with plans of reinforcing in order to attach an auxiliary shelter.

thinking about shelter

 

Interested in: Ranger under an Amazon box, a how-to guide from Popular Mechanics Magazine 1972, and House In a Box by Jerszy Seymour.

My next few weeks will be consumed with the notion of shelter; what I perceive it to be and how it may affect daily life.  As of recently I have been concerned with objects of possession and their relationship to the home and social status.  I am curious what a piece of furniture might maintain as shelter and keep thinking of the classic dining chair cover that drapes to the floor with a little bow tied at the back... gross.  I want to provide armor for furniture by applying distinct construction substrates to the object and create a sort of showroom for the varying pieces and possibilities.    

in progress

 While hanging the plaster chairs to be photographed the next morning, they fell from the wall.  I didn't even consider what the wall material was and how it might hold the weight of the piece (which is something I should know by now), so they fell and two broke.  I am remaking the piece.  The process: a few hours of mindless sewing, pouring plaster, and diligently slicing away the mold that I spent hours making.  Repeat.

Chair #1 took a turn for the worst.  The leg ruptured under pressure and projected plaster across the wall and adjacent objects (sorry Adam).  I digress and attempt chair #2, this time surrounded by plastic... I do learn.

    

I continue to sew.